CAMBRIDGE, England -- The Chinese government has been issuing more regulations to control the use of the Internet. As with the earlier ones, there are no surprises. They simply tidy up what was already accepted practice and add nothing new. It is still the slow bureaucratic machine catching up with reality. For example, last week Sina.com received permission to function as an Internet content provider, something it has been doing for two years already.
Over the last year or so I have attended six international conferences, three in China and three in the Europe, which have had as their main or only topic the development of the Internet in China.
The focus of those in China was on the opportunities the new technology is opening up: for example, increasing and speeding up information flows, improving communications between family members and other social groups (giving birth to the first signs of modern civil society in bulletin boards and chat rooms), allowing wider participation in modern China as with the stock markets, and expanding opportunities for education via distance-learning programs.